Trudeau says Trump's wrong, tariffs had no effect on NAFTA negotiations

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/polit...ffs/index.html

It is also true that the new NAFTA (which was pretty much like the old NAFTA Trump said he hated) or USMC Agreement had no effect on the tariffs- they are still in place even though an agreement was reached.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says US tariffs weren't the reason he was willing to agree to a new trade deal earlier this year-- dismissing President Donald Trump's argument that the duties on Canadian goods forced his hand.

"On the contrary, we have been open from the very beginning to negotiate a new and modernized NAFTA," Trudeau said Monday in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow.

"We were always willing to come to the table, to sit down and negotiate. And we have," he said.

Trump claimed in October that he was able to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico thanks to his hard-nosed tactics, including a willingness to impose new tariffs.

"Without tariffs, we wouldn't be talking about a deal," Trump said. He then mocked politicians opposed to tariffs as "babies."

Trump imposed tariffs earlier this year on steel and aluminum imports coming from around the world, including from allies like Canada and Mexico.

He also threatened to impose new tariffs on autos, and has levied taxes on $250 billion of Chinese goods as his administration continues to talk with China about a new bilateral trade deal.

Trump and Trudeau have had a rocky relationship over trade. In June, the 46-year-old Canadian prime minister said after hosting the G7 summit in Quebec that he would be willing to retaliate over the metal tariffs -- which he then did. "Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around," Trudeau said.

His comments drew immediate fire from top Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who told CNN at the time that Trudeau "kind of stabbed us in the back."

But in his interview Monday, on the eve of the US midterm elections, Trudeau stepped carefully around questions about his relationship with Trump, who personally called him "dishonest and weak" in a tweet over the retaliatory tariffs.

Both Canada and Mexico have responded to Trump's tariffs by levying taxes on US goods including yogurt, cheese, pork, maple syrup and bourbon.

"In politics, you get called a lot of things by a lot of different people," Trudeau said Monday, when asked directly about Trump's personal attacks.

Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum and Canada's and Mexico's retaliatory tariffs remain in place. A Mexican official has suggested they won't sign the new agreement until Trump lifts the duties. All three parties are due to sign it at the end of November, before a new Mexican president comes into office.

Trudeau said he wouldn't yet back out of the NAFTA replacement, which Trump has called the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement, or USCMA.

More at link.

[dannno]

Ya, because we all trust Justin...

That guy is literally one of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.